Folklore and the Climate Crisis: Reading Beara as an Anthropocene Patch with Máiréad Ní Mhíonacháin

Abstract

Though the term ‘Anthropocene’ has become dominant in discourses surrounding the climate emergency, its globalising tendencies risk discouraging grassroots action. This article argues, therefore, that in order to better understand the climate crisis, a more local approach is needed. Folklore is suggested as one such way the specific impacts of the Anthropocene can be read. To investigate, this article analyses the folklore of Máiréad Ní Mhíonacháin as a ‘Capitalocene  Patch’, combining Anna Tsing’s ‘Patchy Anthropocene’ and Jason Moore’s ‘Capitalocene’ theories. In particular, this article looks at how Ní Mhíonacháin’s folklore records human and non-human produced landscapes, and asks how piseoga (superstitions) might produce healthier relations with the environment.